Mount Prospect, Illinois 7 Day Weather Forecast

Wx Forecast - Wx Discussion - Wx Aviation

869
FXUS63 KLOT 272305
AFDLOT

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Chicago/Romeoville, IL
505 PM CST Tue Jan 27 2026

.KEY MESSAGES...

- Northwest winds gusting to 30 mph with low drifting snow
  through sunset this evening.

- Cold conditions will continue into the weekend with mainly
  subzero wind chills through Saturday morning.

- Threat for impactful lake effect snow for northeast IL and
  northwest IN Thursday night through Saturday night.

&&

.DISCUSSION...
Issued at 147 PM CST Tue Jan 27 2026

Northwest winds will quickly diminish with sunset but until
then gusts to 30 mph will continue with areas of low drifting
snow. There will also be a chance of flurries through late
afternoon. Made no changes to low temps for tonight, ranging
from zero in the northwest to a few degrees below zero in the
south, to a few degrees above zero for Chicago. With winds
expected to remain in the 5-10 mph range, this will push wind
chills into the 10 below to 15 below zero range for the entire
area. Could be a few hour period of wind chills near 20 below
for parts of the southern cwa but not planning any advisories at
this time. With mostly sunny skies, high temps should reach the
mid/upper teens for most areas Wednesday. Westerly winds 10-20
mph with higher gusts will keep wind chills near zero for much
of the day. Thursday will be similar to Wednesday with lows near
zero and wind chills 10 below to 15 below zero in the morning
with highs in the mid/upper teens in the afternoon.

Attention then turns to the potential for impactful lake effect
snow Friday and Saturday. There has not been much change in the
recent guidance. High pressure will build across the northern
Plains Thursday night into Friday as an upper level low moves
across the local area Friday into Friday night. This will setup
convergence over Lake Michigan with a band of lake effect snow
developing Thursday night, possibly into northwest IN at first,
then spreading west into far northeast IL Friday morning, then
moving back east into northwest IN Friday evening and then
possibly moving back into northeast IL Saturday morning. While
these overall trends remain on track, the earliest snow would
begin is still 48+ hours away and while lake effect is
challenging, there can be even more uncertainty when its
pointed into northeast IL. While it remains a bit early for
specifics, if a lake effect band does develop, periods of heavy
snow will be possible across far northwest IN and far northeast
IL with several inches of snow possible. Some of the model
guidance would suggest the potential for narrow/small areas of
double digit snowfall amounts near the lake and while that is
possible, confidence is very low for where that may occur. For
this forecast, opted to increase pops to likely and add some qpf
for areas near the lake. However, these are just a trend and
higher pops/qpf will likely be needed with later forecasts.

The clipper parade then looks to return next week with several
possible clippers, the first of which possibly Sunday night into
Monday and the second possibly Tuesday night into Wednesday. Too
early for any specifics with these possible systems. cms

&&

.AVIATION /00Z TAFS THROUGH 06Z THURSDAY/...
Issued at 505 PM CST Tue Jan 27 2026

There are no aviation concerns through the TAF period. Winds
will generally be west to northwest (280 to 300 deg) with
occasional gusts to about 20kt during daylight hours, and
occasional VFR cloud decks will stream overhead.

Borchardt

&&

.HYDROLOGY...
Issued at 230 PM CST Fri Jan 23 2026

River gauges, reports from local officials, and reports from
trained ice spotters continue to indicate a few ice jams across
the area due to the significant increase in river ice over
recent days. With continued cold weather into next week,
conditions will remain favorable for river ice formation. While
no widespread flooding is expected, localized ice jams may
occur.

- NWS Chicago

&&

.LOT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
IL...None.
IN...None.
LM...Small Craft Advisory until 6 PM CST this evening for the IL
     and IN nearshore waters.

&&

$$

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